Android 8.1 Oreo goes final, rolling out now to Nexus and Pixel devices

Google announced that the new OS is rolling out now and is posting system images for the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, the Pixel 1 and 1 XL, the Pixel C tablet, and the Nexus 6P and 5X. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code drop should be happening now, too.

Android 8.1 Oreo is a minor maintenance release after the major update of Android 8.0. The biggest feature in 8.1 is a new “Neural Networks API” (NNAPI), which is designed for running machine learning operations on mobile devices.

Google’s first ever consumer SoC, and it lives alongside the usual eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. The Pixel Visual Core—which was designed with help from Intel—will power NNAPI functions, and it allows Google’s HDR+ image processing to run “5x faster and at less than 1/10th the energy.” It shipped in a dormant mode when the Pixel 2 was released, but with the release of Android 8.1, Google is turning it on for everyone.